Gunmen kill aide of Afghan insurgent Hekmatyar, who made peace with Kabul

PESHAWAR, Pakistan/KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday gunned down the former secretary to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord turned insurgent who signed a peace deal with the government in Kabul, officials said.

Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i-Islami party identified the slain man as Mohammad Fareed and blamed “elements against peace” for the killing.

Fareed was returning home from a mosque in the Taj Abad area of Peshawar when the gunmen opened fire, Peshawar police officer Shaid Ahmad said

“He died in the spot and the assailants made their good escape on motorcycles,” the officer told Reuters.

The victim also went by used the names Haji Fareed Salaam and Naqeeb Mohammad, he added.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hekmatyar returned last month to Kabul, the city his forces bombarded during the 1990s civil war, under a peace deal with Kabul signed last year and urged Taliban insurgents to follow his example.

Local Pakistani media and two Hizb-i-Islami members said Fareed was a relative by marriage to Hekmatyar.